Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd was an invertible robot which competed in Series 8 of Robot Wars. It was built by an Oxford-based team, and was notable for being the first competitor to feature Mecanum wheels as a method of locomotion. However, it lost its Group Battle after becoming immobilised following attacks from PP3D and Apollo. Design Sweeney Todd was constructed from 4mm of thick steel, and is armed with a circular saw, which according to the official Robot Wars website, was powerful enough to cut through steel and concrete. Sweeney Todd was the first robot in the history of Robot Wars to use Mecanum wheels, which have rollers attached to allow the robot to drive in any direction without turning. This gave Sweeney Todd high manoeuvrability, although it would still need to turn manually in order to point its circular saw at opponents. Sweeney Todd weighed a mere 45kg - 10kg lighter than the maximum weight for middleweight robots. With the heaviest competitors in Series 8 weighing 110kg, Sweeney Todd was under half the weight of that amount. Etymology The name Sweeney Todd was derived from the antagonist of the 1846-1847 story series, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_String_of_Pearls The String of Pearls]. Stage productions and films named after Sweeney Todd would later be produced, based on the same character. The Team Sweeney Todd was entered by a team of engineers from Oxford. The Team Captain was Sean Cleary, an electronics engineer, along with software engineer Laurence de Bruxelles and mechanical engineers Jon Elmer and Dominique Andreson. Robot History Series 8 Sweeney Todd appeared in Heat 4, where in the first round, it faced former Annihilator champions Kan-Opener, full-pressure flipper Apollo, and undercutting spinner PP3D, built by Gary Cairns from the team that won Series 7 with Typhoon 2. Its role at the start of the battle was passive, avoiding the other robots, only bringing its angle grinders into play onto Apollo when it had lost drive on one wheel. Sweeney Todd returned to the background, avoiding danger until PP3D attacked it, ripping an angle grinder out of Sweeney Todd. It became clear that Sweeney Todd was immobilised by this attack, only showing movement by coasting. It sustained more damage from PP3D, warping the shape of its body, and was flipped into the arena wall by Apollo. As Sweeney Todd was finally counted out, it was hit by PP3D, and was somersaulted by Apollo, and sent spinning away by the final blow from PP3D. It was eliminated from the competition, alongside Kan-Opener. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 0 *Losses: 1 Series Record Sweeney todd gateway.jpg|Sweeney Todd's hero shot Sweeney Todd.jpg|Sweeney Todd in the pits Sweeney_Todd_towards_arena.jpg|Sweeney Todd is wheeled into the arena Sweeney todd s8 arena.png|Sweeney Todd in the arena Trivia *Before building Sweeney Todd, the team had experience building autonomous hovercrafts and test rover bots. *Sweeney Todd was one of only four robots in Series 8 to not use modern lithium polymer or nickel metal hydride batteries inside the machine, the others being DisConstructor, Kill-E-Crank-E and The General, which also used lead acid batteries. *In October 2016, Dominique from the team won the 'Best Female Role Model on Robot Wars' award at the 2016 IET Engineering the Future Festival, an award created by judge Noel Sharkey. *In Series 6, Jonathan Pearce referred to Barber-Ous 2 as "the Robot Wars Sweeney Todd". *Sweeney Todd was the only robot from Heat 4 of Series 8 not to appear in another episode besides said episode. *At 45kgs, Sweeney Todd was the lightest robot to enter Series 8. * Sweeney Todd was the fourth middleweight to fight in a heavyweight Championship. The other was Marauder in Extreme Warriors Season 2. Both Thor's Hammer and The Piecemaker fought heavyweights in an Annihilator. External Links *[http://www.robotwars.tv/competitors/season-8/week-4/sweeney-todd/ Sweeney Todd on the Robot Wars website] Category:UK Series competitors Category:Middleweights Category:Robots from Oxfordshire Category:Robots with Circular Saws Category:Invertible Robots Category:Robots with names based on film and television Category:Robots which debuted in Series 8 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 8 Category:Robots which lost their only battle Category:Robots with names based on literature